Witches of Lust Ch. 15

"We understand, and we trust you," Denny said, and the other knights nodded, all of their eyes on me.

"Thank you, Denny, that means a lot. Thanks all of you."

I shut myself in my room, alone. Well, Zurknod was sitting invisibly on my shoulder, and now he reappeared.

"Way to get shot out there," he said. "In the neck, Jeanie, the neck! Even a zombie should have died!" He found this extremely humorous for some reason. I did not.

"Zurknod, I wish to speak with our prisoner. Is she ready for interrogation?"

"I don't remember you asking me to prepare your prisoner for interrogation. Perhaps you want me to cook and clean for her as well?!"

"Can I see her?"

"Well she's right inside my pocket dimension, want me to get her for you?"

"Yes, please. Thank you, Zurknod. Um, she's not dangerous, is she?"

"Virtually all of her spirit energy has been drained and the Hornunckthulide has taken the fight out of her. You know, maybe she should lie on the bed, she's had a long day."

"Okay, that sounds fine," I said, puzzled by his sudden seriousness.

"I'll try to deposit her gently."

"You know Zerky, you're alright. I liked that trick you pulled, snagging the witch while she was out of sight of the knights. Wicked timing."

"Oh stop 'mistress,' you are making me blush," he said in a sarcastic tone, but I could tell he was pleased with himself. He loved any time that I could use words like 'wicked' and 'vicious' to describe him. We were getting along far better than usual, so I acted sweetly and waited for him to deposit the prisoner on the bed.

He opened a portal a full four feet above the bed. Quite unexpectedly, a pale greenish slime began to pour out, coating the half the bed.

"Oh, gross! My fucking bed!" I complained loudly.

A pair of feet, legs, and the extremely bloated upper body of a naked woman slid into view amidst the stream of slime. Once her ass cleared the portal's edge she plummeted down the last few feet and landed on the bed with a crash and a splash of slime.

Her blonde hair was dripping, soaked with more of that slime. She looked like she weighed 300 pounds because her fluid-packed belly was sloshing about, but I could tell that she was normally quite slender. Aside from the web of streaked mascara all over her face, she was actually kind of pretty. Reminding myself that I could get any witch to clean up the slime with cantrips, I focused on asking questions.

"What is your name?" I asked, my tone firm and aloof.

I saw a look of discomfort on her face, and then she opened wide as one of the Hornunckthulide's larvae crawled out of her mouth. The huge multi-legged insect-like creature crawled away nonchalantly. Once it was out, she tried to swallow and looked very uncomfortable.

"Audrey," she croaked. She grimaced weakly and then vomited more of that green slime all over herself. She started gagging and choking, her throat bulging obscenely with another one of those creature caught in her throat. I waited for almost a minute before the choking girl managed to pass the thing out of her throat and mouth. She looked ready to pass out, and gasped for air. It was clear she wasn't in any shape to talk.

"I guess I'll be doing a little mind reading," I thought to myself, steeling myself for possible horrors contained within this satanic witch. I envisioned my psychic fortress and began to focus in on her. I wondered what sort of psychic fortress I might find.

What I found was not surprising. In my psychic training, Morgana had told me that most people had no fortress or defenses at all. Even humans who were versed in the occult often had fortresses that resembled wooden barricades, brick houses, or other meager walls. Whatever Audrey's fortress had been, the walls had been blown away but for a few planks of wood. She lay prone upon a dirt foundation. There was another figure standing over her who I recognized immediately.

Morgana, what are you doing here? I asked.

Finishing up the interrogation. You better take a look for yourself. Don't worry, she hasn't been fully initiated yet.

I peered into Audrey's memories, carefully at first, then with increasing boldness. To my shock, she was not as evil as I had expected. She had been pressed into the coven because Dr. Clipper had an eye for her. His coven recruited her to take the place of another witch who they murdered just to show Audrey what they were capable of. Clipper liked fresh victims besides. The most junior member of the coven was never treated with any sort of respect. She was the victim of frequent humiliation, petty acts of blackmail, and she was also the gopher for them when they did not wish to leave the hospital, even though this exposed her to bouts of ethereal attacks.

To keep his witches from even thinking about turning on him, Eugene Clipper placed a powerful evil curse right on each of them, and Audrey was no exception. The curse took the form of a rune which appeared on her pelvis, right above her muff. It made her get horny and aroused every few hours. Her craving for sex could not be truly satiated by anyone but he. Withdrawal from his dick would set in after about 24 hours, with strong levels of arousal. In 72 hours it would make her pussy itch and burn, the curse too intense to allow her to think about anything else but fucking anything or anyone. Sex would ease the burning but not stop it, unless Eugene fucked her. If she had not fucked him by the end of the week she would spontaneously combust, burning like a Roman candle from the inside out, or at least, so she had been told. By the two-day mark, she became utterly desperate.

There was a room in the hospital where she would have sex with men who had paid for it. She sometimes earned big tips but Eugene confiscated all of it and in return, he would fuck her too.

Dr. Clipper also took the time to entrap her family members in blackmail schemes, to ensure she never considered rebellion or suicide.

The curse had been one way for him to keep control of her. The rune was actually his initials merged into one letter. In addition to becoming one of his sex slaves, she gave him most of her income and lived in the hospital.

Audrey was once a well-loved and caring nurse who worked well with children. Under compulsion, she had done some fairly nasty things, however. Most commonly, the coven required her to inject her patients with toxins and even cancer-causing viruses. She had been conflicted, but obeyed, and these acts weighed on her conscience, but it was counterbalanced by the blackmail of her family. She had done whatever she had to in order to protect them.

Knowing what had happened to her and the compulsion she had been under, I actually started to feel sorry for her. At the same time, I felt rage at her for what she had done, the young children she harmed, the sorrow and anguish that had been inflicted on their parents just to feed Eugene's coven. All the while, the parents had thought their children were receiving the best possible treatment.

You are probably wondering if there is redemption for her, Morgana telepathed to me.It's possible. Her heart still feels remorse, but it will not be easy for her truly gain redemption on her own. She will need our help, just as she had help hurting all those lives.

Do we even have time for that?

Anything is possible with magic, Morgana assured me.It would be easier if we dealt with Medina first. If we help Audrey, we are going to help the people she hurt, which is one of our priorities, right? It also means she is going to help us take out the warlock, Eugene Clipper.

Is that why you want to help her? You want the warlock?

Don't you? He's an immediate threat to everyone who might come to this hospital. He will want to take a human sacrifice as soon as possible.

Oh! Wow, I see. Well, of course we should do something about him. Can we ever trust Audrey, though? Even after what I did to her with the tentacles?

She was the one that shot you and Stu! I think you're almost even, and if you promise to set her free, she'd be even happier. We can also read her mind after we lift the curse to make sure she's on our side.

Oh, of course. How do we dispel the curse?

Let me handle it.

We left the psychic realm and returned to our physical senses. The room was starting to get crowded with eggs, with at least twenty lining the walls. The door unlocked, slid open, and Morgana joined us, shutting and locking it behind her. Audrey was almost back to her normal size, and was in the process of egesting the last few tentacle larvae. With her belly no longer in the way, I could see the tattooed rune on her pelvis.

"Audrey? Can you speak?" Morgana asked.

The girl nodded, then shook her head. In her weakened state, she didn't bother to clench or bend over, she simply opened her mouth and heaved weakly while the last larvae crawled out of her mouth.

"What has happened to me?" she moaned.

"Audrey Bennings, I think you will want to hear this offer. We can help you get back at Eugene and redeem yourself."

"I can't," she said in despair.

"You can! Do you want to?"

"Yes, of course!" she wailed. "I can't though! They have dirt on me, on my family, and the curse! If the curse is lifted, they will know!"

"They? Who is they?" Morgana asked.

"They know about the coven. He answers to them!"

"We know about the Eugene, his coven, the curse and the blackmail." Morgana went on. "We'll help you put an end to it."

"Eugene is not the only one!" she blurted.

"Charma!" Morgana gasped. "It's Charma O'Dorean!" Morgana had read Audrey's surface thoughts.

"Shh don't say it!" she interrupted.

"Uh, sounds like a kids cereal. Is that bad?" I joked. The look of fear and panic that came across Audrey's face seemed to answer my question.

"It scares her. O'Dorean runs an organization for multiple satanic covens. It is by far the largest of its kind in the world. She operates primarily out of North America."

"Oh, I had no idea there was anything like that!" I gasped.

"Well, there is. I've avoided her all these years because she is, well, too much for me, or was."

"Don't speak of her!" Audrey cried. "Please, stop!"

"Be quiet!" Morgana snapped. "You're becoming more of a headache than you're worth, girl." She made an arcane gesture and reached out toward the witch while inspecting her carefully. The rune above her pelvis glowed purple for a moment, followed by a bright red glow from her heart and a yellow glow in her head.

"It's not good. She's got a few enchantments on her besides the curse. One is tied to the curse, and constantly sends a signal to whoever is blackmailing her. Once the curse is off, the signal dies. Once the signal dies, O'Dorean or whoever is at the other end could decide to release the blackmail payload specific to Bennings and her kin."

"They are watching, they are watching," Audrey murmured.

"They can't scry into our ship." Morgana snapped. "The signal works a little differently, unfortunately."

"So if we undo the curse, dirt on her family comes out?" I asked.

"I'm afraid so."

"Can we avoid that? Maybe create a new signal, a counterfeit, after we dispel the curse?" I asked.

"No. Hold on, let me think a moment. Yes, that could work."

"What? What are you going to do?!" Audrey yelped.

"I told you to shut up!"

"Want me to fleshcraft her mouth shut? Just temporary."

Morgana ignored my snide remark. "It won't be easy, but we should do something about O'Dorean, maybe eliminate her. However, others would try to move in to take her place if she were dead, so we might get more traction out of intimidating her."

"How?"

"Mmm, a psychic attack would work best. Charma is known to be formidable in that realm, but I am pretty devastating myself."

"I'm good too," I said.

"You're not ready for the likes of Charma, I'm afraid. Far, far too innocent, and I like that about you. Leave this one to me."

"So are we going to fly there with the Ray of Dawn?"

"I guess so. We'll have to get close. Her headquarters is in northern New Jersey. She runs a chain of clothing stores, men's clothing, as a front. I have an idea about what we can do, but first we deal with Clipper."

"Wait! Don't do anything!" Audrey screamed.

Morgana raised her hands and cast a spell, zapping Audrey with a forceful mind spell. The girl fell back onto the pillows of the bed in a daze.

There. She has forgotten about the blackmail. I've also dispelled a homing signal that let Eugene keep tabs on her, it seems there is no contingency spell connected to that. I'm not sure, but I'm not taking chances. I'll leave the curse alone for now. We have a few days to figure that one out, but I think we can override the part where it has to be the doctor that sates her. Morgana telepathed.

"Hmm, we better do something about this slime.Referum Zeferum Vastinus vime, clean up all this gooey slime!" she intoned. The entire mess of slime on my bed was whisked away. Audrey's nude body was covered in goose bumps and her perky little nipples got hard.

Morgana placed a blanket over her and spoke gently. "Audrey, wake up dear. Hey, you're okay now, you're fine. Can you take us to where Eugene is hiding?"

"Y-yes." she replied, still a little confused as to why she had suddenly changed her mind. "What then?"

"Then we kill him."

"If he dies, the curse will consume me," she murmured. "I'll have to commit suicide after I kill him." She steeled herself as she realized what she must do, what she always wished to do but could not for some reason. She had forgotten about the blackmail threat against her family. "I don't just want to kill him. He needs to be tortured, not just for me, but for everybody he has hurt!"

"Torture is wrong," I said. "We-"

"That's okay, Jeanie. This is different. Torture is acceptable as a form of revenge against slave masters. What do you think the curse did to her?"

"Tortured me, used me," Audrey said, a tear running down her cheek.

"You see Jeanie, slavery violates natural law. It deprives a woman of her own self, her volition, her path in life. Even if she gets that back, if she is to carry out retribution that could also involve violations of natural law. This is permissible if doing so does not create a cycle of revenge."

"I'll have to die anyway, because of the curse," Audrey said. "I-I don't know why I waited so long. He took everything from me," she said, looking confused. "My life was a lie, a living nightmare."

"We'll take care of the curse," Morgana said. "I think."

"Really?!"

Morgana nodded slowly. "It's within my powers to remove it, but you'll have to trust me and wait it out a little."

Tears of joy filled Audrey's eyes, but then she looked distant again. "I still want to torture that bastard a little."

"I won't stop you, but I don't have much of a stomach for it myself."

"Trust me, I can handle it," Audrey said. "He hurt me. I should be the one to hurt him back."

"You really think you can?" Morgana asked. Something in her tone seemed to imply that she knew Audrey was not capable of much torture either.

"I just need a way to keep him tied down and helpless, as he did to me."

"That I can arrange."

Audrey gave Morgana an appraising look, neither convinced nor any longer afraid. "You are powerful, I'll admit," she said. "Whatever it takes, I'm on board. Let's do it soon, please!" Audrey glanced to the side and noticed the cocoons. "Oh fuck what the hell are those?!"

"Those, if you start to get squeamish, will be our way of ensuring he gets punished," Morgana told her. "Don't be afraid, they won't hurt us, they're quite tame. Now then Audrey, we need to know where he is."

"I doubt he left the hospital. It's his sanctuary. He has a secret lair in the hospital basement. I'll lead you to the secret doorway. Yennefer, our coven's priestess, is probably there too. He's got all sorts of wards and doors that only open to him, and even I don't know where his secret escape passage leads to."

"A secret escape passage?"

"Take us there, I'll magically open them and we'll rush in full speed. He won't escape," Morgana said. "Zurknod, we need you to put away your things please." With a wave of her hands, she conjured a set of street clothes for Audrey. "Here, put these on."

"Wow! Thanks." She threw off the covers and started to get dressed.

I watched her pull on a pair of pink panties. I'll admit, she was no Erica but she was still a real hometown cutie. Toned, slender, and pale all over, with a pretty clear complexion. I reached out with my powers and noticed that she had herpes, so I cured it.

"Does he have any more scrolls? Booby traps?" I asked.

"Scrolls?"

The others never told her about any of that stuff. Morgana telepathed me.You must have forgotten to check those things when you read her mind. Did I distract you, perhaps?

"Nevermind," I said sheepishly.

"Do you mind telling me where I am? I don't remember how I got here." She was looking out of the portholes, at distant lights far below in the blackness of a Tennessee night.

"We're aboard the Ray of Dawn, a stealth airship and the base of operations for the Sisters of Harmony. I am Morgana, High Priestess, and this is Jeanie Carter, who you can thank for your life."

"Thank you, Ms Carter," she said.

"Call me Jeanie."

"I'm lucky to be alive. If your goons had gotten to me," she murmured. A look of confusion crossed her face. "What happened after that? How did you-"

"A sleep spell," Morgana bluffed.

"They're not goons, by the way. They are very decent and wonderful and brave. They're on your side now, on our side." I told her.

"They are Faroldian Knights, skilled martial artists and as bold and fearless as they come," Morgana said.

"I-I think I've heard of them. Oh wow."

"They would have killed you, I can assure you," Morgana said. "They don't like satanic witches. You are no longer with their coven, officially, nor are you officially in ours. You should probably go back to living a normal life after this. No more Satanic worship, is that clear?"

"Perfectly, of course! I would never, ever-"

"We'll come back some day to help you atone for your sins, but we have other things to do first. One of those things is we take down Eugene and Yennefer. How's that sound?" As she spoke, my homunculus appeared and opened a portal, then started levitating all of the egg-like cocoons into his pocket dimension.

"Sounds good. Um, what the heck is that, is that a live demon?"

"Yeah. He's a nasty, vicious freak, but our friend," I said.

"Zurknod is the name," the demon said, doing a little backflip. "It's a pretty good gig working for Jeanie. If I were you I'd polish up my resume and apply. A witch is a witch, right?"

"Sorry, this is a lot to take in. So wait, how in the hell did you get an airship?! Where did it come from?"

"We built it," Morgana chuckled.

"Built it? Oh, like you secured a government grant?" This was how many covens operated when they needed to expand. Getting grants is very easy when you have contacts in the state or national legislature.

"We built it with magic and it flies on pure magic."

"But how did you get so much magic? How are you able to do so much?!"

"We'll tell you later," Morgana said.

"You have a demon friend, and what did I sleep through?" She looked at each of us in turn but I took a cue from Morgana and just smiled enigmatically. "I'll do whatever you say if we can just kill Eugene." She glanced at Zurknod and his levitating eggs as they disappeared into a floating interdimensional portal, then hung her head down in submission. "Just please, please don't be evil."

"Trust us, we wouldn't even have this little fellow around if he wasn't so damned useful," I joked.